posted
This week I was reading an article in Newsweek about the state of creativity in the United States. Pretty cool article but what I found most intriguing was a quick mention of "paracosms" or imaginary worlds created in childhood. There was a brief mention about their complexities (distinct geography, languages, inhabitants, etc) and how it related to creativity.
Now, the imaginary friends and the imaginary worlds that children inhabit are not an unknown phenomenon to most people. I personally love watching little kids play with action figures and I can't help but wonder if the world looks different for them when they're so engrossed in their play. However, I'm mostly curious as to whether any part of the population maintain this behavior into adulthood. Everything I've been able to google on the subject mentions the stories told by the Bronte siblings or how Narnia was an example of a paracosm. And obviously this sort of world-building is particularly helpful to writers and other creative people. But every article also seems to imply that, like imaginary friends, a paracosm is discarded sometime between childhood and adulthood.
I guess my question to everyone here is whether they world-built as children and if so, have you maintained the connection today?
I know that I did and I still do. I've never talked about it with anyone in case they thought I was crazy. I mean, everyone daydreams but to build a whole world and continue to visit it regularly over a lifetime...it seems crazy. But I figured, in a creative group like this one where most of us grew up with our noses in fantastical novels, I couldn't be alone.
The world in my head is not as complex as it was when I was a child and now I revisit it more as a comfort, to play out story lines and events I already know the endings to. I think my emotional attachment to this world is what makes it different from the world-building done for the purposes of storytelling. I do alot of creative writing, but mostly as a relaxation exercise. I may spend a few days working out a scenario, envisioning the characters with all of their weird mannerisms and methods of speech. But then I write it down and it goes out of my head. I may never revisit it again.
So is it weird that I'm still so attached to the world I built as a kid? As far as security blankets go, I think this is a minor one. Or am I just one of millions of dreamers with overactive imaginations?
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
I would guess that many people who express desire to write fiction or 'have a big idea for a book' is building upon it as a paracosm. Unless there's some defining trait of paracosm that makes it different from a built-upon concept world that a person thinks about. Do you have to actively pretend you are part of that world for it to be a paracosm?
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posted
I wouldn't say building a complex world and holding onto it for various reasons is indicative of anything negative. I personally liked telling stories as a child, but I always preferred to use props, or borrow a readily constructed world and to bend it. I had lots of GI Joes, some amphibious vehicles, and a hot tub with air jets. Put them all together and you have an adventure down the boiling rapids of death. Colored space lego men easily became mega man and his his nemesis Dr. Wiley's robot army.
If we create our own universe from the ground up I think it's perfectly fine to use it for comfort, distraction, story telling, etc. I didn't really create paracosms as a child as far as I can remember but I did make up names that you won't hear anywhere else for my siblings. I even have phrases I use and distinct accents I adopt whenever I address them.
That said, I like paracosms (new words particularly), especially ones that fill niches that we don't have good words for. Like Shakespere's phrase "hot-blooded." It just makes sense. Or even Lewis Carols, "vorpal sword" "whiffling" and, "chortled."
I sometimes wish I had tried my hand at creating a whole new world. I have a short story where I've laid a world out, but it's very hard for me to make it cohesive. I initially tried my hand at creating a spefic manner of speaking for certain castes in that society, but it just didn't sound believable. I hope to succeed at it one day. I would especially love it if I ever got to work with one of my children at creating a fantasy world.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I have two different worlds that I imagine and that I “live” in as an adult. They are not the same places I used to go as a kid (one world has been with me since the early teens. Maybe 12 or 13) I am not an active participant in the worlds as much as their creator and its historian. I do occasionally write down events on scratch paper or change the map that I once drew to show the change in political power and the add newly discovered lands.
Other things that I do involve games that I play. I will imagine playing Risk games with my friends at random times (usually when I am supposed to be working) where the Risk game is actual war over actual territory and that I am an actual general. I also play out imaginary scenarios involving Eve Online. For anyone who hasn’t played Eve, the capital wars in 0.0 make for fascinating reading and watching how sovereignty has changed over the years or even something small like the Alliance tourney has lead me to imaginary battles and wars and corporations that either don’t really exist or dont actually involve be (and doubtfully ever will).
Posts: 467 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Samprimary: I would guess that many people who express desire to write fiction or 'have a big idea for a book' is building upon it as a paracosm. Unless there's some defining trait of paracosm that makes it different from a built-upon concept world that a person thinks about. Do you have to actively pretend you are part of that world for it to be a paracosm?
I think I'm still trying to decide whether the defining difference is that a paracosm originates in childhood or that it requires a long-term, emotional attachment. Its the difference between telling the kids a fantastical story at bedtime and developing a unique world over several years, especially if its for selfish reasons rather than being motivated by a desire to entertain others.
Maybe the childhood bit isn't a required part of the definition. Many science fiction and fantasy writers seem to be creating paracosms. There are the writers who maybe write a few short series, or maybe write lots of different books set in different worlds with different characters. But then you have the ones that create series with 10+ books in them, the ones that write their own companion books with large family trees and complicated maps. The desire to maintain that world over many years seems unique to some writers but not all.
I guess I don't hear alot of people talking about their own private daydream worlds outside of crushing on the cute guy who works down the hall.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
I've never heard the term paracosm before, but it accurately describes my childhood fantasies and world building. I thought of my world many times in my 20s, a bit less in my 30s, and rarely in my (now) 40s. Reading your post has caused me to reflect back to my world. I like it!
Posts: 315 | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
I'm a little baffled that this is a thing that needed a unique word. I mean, it's a cool word, don't get me wrong. But there are plenty of imaginative folks who create worlds over the course of their lives. Just because boring people stop it when they turn 13 or whatever doesn't mean there's an actual fundamental transition between the two. I certainly never felt one.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
I had a couple Imaginary Worlds that I used to imagine.
Sometimes when I was a kid I would take a balloon filled with helium and imagine it was a hot air balloon I was in. I imagined I was floating over an island filled with dinosaurs. This was before Jurassic Park. Watching that movie brought back some memories.
The other was a dream that I had numerous times as a child. It took place in a huge mansion. Everything in the mansion was white, and there was some big dinner party going on. I used to imagine different scenarios and different things happening at the dinner party. Strangely enough, the Child Empress from The Never Ending Story was always there, and we were an item.
I just realized I still don't know what name Bastion gave her at the end of the movie. Some people say it was Moonchild, but it doesn't sound like that in the movie, and even when I turn subtitles on it doesn't show what he said.
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